16 replies to this topic

[CJ]

After just spending a good hour skimming the French news sites in search for what kind of informations about the actual situation in my country they had released, I wondered whether any of you guys was aware of said situation. Cause even though the French news are now talking a lot about it I didn't see any mention of it on British and US websites.

Basically for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about it all started about 3 weeks ago. A young guy who was trying to subsist by selling fruits and vegetables (without permission, since the authorities don't give a damn about poor people and refused to even see him when he asked for said permission) was arrested for the 6th time and all his merchandise was destroyed again. Since he was the only person with a job in his family and everyone else was depending of him, he depressed and committed suicide by immolation, in hope that it would catch the medias attention.
Sure enough, the act didn't go unnoticed, and there have been several protests by the citizens against the corruption and the alarming rate of unemployment, and it all went downhill from there : Local authorities decided the best thing to do was to open fire on the protesters with lethal bullets.
As of now, the number of causalities is of at least 20 dead, a hundred of severely wounded, in addition to 5 other persons who committed suicide and all what the French government found to say is that they were deploring the "violences committed" (note that they didn't even precise who was committing the violences) which I find to be absolutely disgusting. They say that they support freedom of speech, but as soon as it concerns a country with which they have interests they don't mind dictatorships anymore.

EDIT : There also were protests at several universities today including mine, and once again the police was shooting with real bullets, no idea of the number of causalities though...

Edited by CJ, 10 January 2011 - 17:49.

[Soul]

I was not aware of such events, it is quite disturbing that they are shooting at unarmed civilians.

[Golan]

German magazine DER SPIEGEL has been covering the issue for some time now.

By the way, please try to stay in one piece, will ya?

[CJ]

Golan, on 10 Jan 2011, 23:49, said:

German magazine DER SPIEGEL has been covering the issue for some time now.

By the way, please try to stay in one piece, will ya?

Glad to see that there's another country talking about this.
And don't worry about me, I'm staying out of this mess. Especially now that exams and courses stopped due to the fact that some students were wounded today...

[Dauth]

Just read the BBC article on this. It sounds very rough over there mate. Do you know how long the courses will be off for and if so is there somewhere safe (or safer) that you can head out to? I don't think I'd like to stay in at university if students were getting wounded.

[Chyros]

Yes, it's on the news here. It's a complete abomination that this was allowed to happen and beyond any measure of reasonability - I'm at a loss for words at this.

Glad to hear you're staying safe mate, I wouldn't like to be into that pickle.

[Areze]

Stay safe man, sounds like shit over there.

[CJ]

Dauth, on 11 Jan 2011, 0:12, said:

Just read the BBC article on this. It sounds very rough over there mate. Do you know how long the courses will be off for and if so is there somewhere safe (or safer) that you can head out to? I don't think I'd like to stay in at university if students were getting wounded.

Thankfully I live in a rather calm area, far from the zones in trouble.
Also, the "official" number of people who were killed has now reached 40, and it's only getting worse since some government goons started raiding public infrastructure in small towns with molotovs and shit, while pretending that it was the rioters who did that...

[Destiny]

Holy shit Argetlam CJ, board up your windows and block your doors, you have to be safe. You must! I hope the situation clears up soon, it's...scary. Well since you live in a calm area, hopefully it's...okay.

[BeefJeRKy]

The troubles in your country have been trending on Twitter not to mention all over local news. It's a very ugly situation that I hope will at least end up for the better. Godspeed Sejir.

[CJ]

Well for the moment I don't really think this'll end better as we now have looters running around, attacking banks and houses. Several friends of mine say that they're still hearing gunfight right now...
I think this might end up as a civil war, especially since the military have started defending the protesters against the police to the point that a General go demoted...

[Areze]

Typical that the US news hasn't made any mention of it.

Just stay safe man, that sounds like it will get damn ugly.

Edited by Areze, 12 January 2011 - 00:10.

[BeefJeRKy]

Congratulations Tunisia. I hope this can set an example to other Arab states in similar situations. I hope that the future of this nation will be brighter than ever.

[CJ]

Nothing is sure yet, even though Ben Ali fled the country there's still a risk that integrists try to profit form the chaos.
But it's nonetheless a great day for Tunisia and it will remain in our history!

[CJ]

There are looters everywhere, in each neighborhood the citizens are gathering to defend themselves against them and the military have been deployed everywhere with helicopters, shooting everyone who's not respecting the curfew
The situation is fucked up.
Also the rioters who have been captured alive turned out to be members of Ben Ali's police, apparently they want to make people believe that security is impossible without him.

[SquigPie]

CJ, on 14 Jan 2011, 23:13, said:

There are looters everywhere, in each neighborhood the citizens are gathering to defend themselves against them and the military have been deployed everywhere with helicopters, shooting everyone who's not respecting the curfew
The situation is fucked up.
Also the rioters who have been captured alive turned out to be members of Ben Ali's police, apparently they want to make people believe that security is impossible without him.

Seriously, why are anyone loyal to that guy?

[CJ]

23 years of propaganda, plus all his followers had huge advantages while he was president...